Moving to pasadena- need pasadena residents input (Vista, Culver City: home, neighborhoods)

[alaplex]

My wife and I have pretty much had it living in the West LA area. We currently live in the Palms area (near Culver City). The surrounding areas include Culver, City, Mar Vista, Westwood, Century City and Beverly Hills.
We are looking at Pasadena because we have made several trips there over the past year and it seems like a nice city that has some middle class areas left. This no longer exists on the west side. Go North to Westwood, Century City, Beverly Hills and you have a nice environment with well behaved people but the prices are exeptionally high. Go south to Venice Blvd including Mar Vista and parts of Culver City and you have working class immigrant neighborhoods which means crying babies in restaurants and other businesses, shouting in stores, vendors selling junk from sidewlks, cars and major intersections, auto repairs being done on the street, people all speaking Spanish, etc. It is fast becoming third world here and we are tired of having to make the decision to do our business in Century City or Westwood and pay the higher prices or stay closer to home and pay lower prices but know we will have to tolerate this behavior.

We aren't naive and don't expect anywhere to be perfect but hope there is a place where there is less drama when doing simple things like grocery shopping, eating out or just going to the local Target. I would like to hear from some Pasadena residents on the quality of life there. Our experience there has been good but would like to have some further input from actual residents.

[Jonah1979]

I love Pasadena...my wife and I live in the Cal-tech area. We walk to south lake shops all the time. Pasadena has a lot of options for dinning and things to do like the Huntington or hiking. Compared to the traffic on the west side Pasadena will be a welcome change. The traffic is congested when everyone gets off work but other than that you can navigate around easily. Old town is great...that would be another area i'd like to live near, very walkable and the metro is there as well.

Hope that helps...yes we have bums too.

[alaplex]

Thanks for the input. I know you have bums too, but like I said, we don't expect a perfect world. After all this is LA. We're just trying to escape an area that is fast becoming a third world area.

[CA4Now]

We have several relatives who live in Pasadena and all of them seem to enjoy it. It's a great city with a lot to do, is close to downtown L.A., has much to offer culturally, has great restaurants....not much not to like. I can imagine it would be a nice change from West L.A.

[BRinSM]

i'd say pasadena is probably all around a more liveable area than the westside, it's just lacking proximity to the ocean, which means hotter and smoggier summers.

[CALGUY]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

i'd say pasadena is probably all around a more liveable area than the westside, it's just lacking proximity to the ocean, which means hotter and smoggier summers.

Yes, but closer to te mountains where the air is a lot clearer.

Bob.

[ZenMaster2008]

Originally Posted by CALGUY

Yes, but closer to te mountains where the air is a lot clearer.

Bob.

Air is smoggier in the foothills and much cleaner the closer you get to the ocean. If you were being sarcastic I apologize.

[BRinSM]

i think bob meant that the air is cleaner up in the mountains.

[seain dublin]

Pasadena is a lot hotter in the summer months.

[cuteazz1]

I love Pasadena....The closer to Colorado blvd.(and South of there) the better....I was raised there until my early teens and I loved it.